Secrets and Lies
by Catherine Pugh
Summary: Dana Scully finds out shocking news about her father, discovered by one of Mulder's cousins in the DEA. She and Mulder travel to a mysterious town in Washington State together to unravel the mystery behind Dana's recurring dream, and grow closer in the process. Set sometime around "X-Cops."
1. Discovery

Fox Mulder sat at his desk, mulling over the file. Beads of sweat billowed out of his forehead as he stared at the records in disbelief and anxiety. He had no idea how to tell Scully any of this. It would break her heart, and that was the last thing he could ever do to her.

He remembered the heartache the Scully family had gone through when Scully researched Emily's genetic background, and how angry they'd been when she assumed Melissa had a child out of wedlock. This news, however, was a thousand times worse. Already a devastating year for both agents in so many ways, Mulder wished he could just ignore the facts and take both himself and Scully off the case, run away together, anything at all…but it was an X-File. Skinner had dropped it on his desk this morning, with nothing but a taut mouth and the words, "Please break this news gently to Agent Scully. She is obviously dismissed from this. I recommend she take a week's vacation."

Dana Scully arrived in the office at 8:00 AM sharp, with two steaming cups of coffee and a bag of pastries. Scully was so thoughtful, mused Mulder. She always got him a chocolate croissant, herself a cherry Danish, and they always ripped them in half to share and enjoy both. Today, Scully was especially chipper (and already hopped up on caffeine), telling Mulder that she spotted a famous actor on the street tying his shoe. Mulder had no idea who she was talking about, but she was so giddy, he wanted to savor that moment before dropping her with this bomb.

With a mouth full of cherry Danish, Scully handed Mulder his half, and for the first time she saw the trouble in his face.

"Mulder." She looked at him worriedly.

"I'm afraid I have some news. I don't know how to tell you this."

"What's wrong?"

"I…I don't know what to say, Dana."

_Dana, _thought Scully. _It's bad. Really, really bad._

Mulder handed her the file, avoiding her eyes. He began picking apart his croissant like a raccoon; anything to keep his hands busy and his thoughts distracted. He got up and walked over to the filing cabinet, bracing himself for Scully's reaction. He didn't even know how to gauge his own reaction.

Scully's face went pale as she read over the casework. Her hands shook as she read the words on the paper.

_No, it can't be true. It can't. Nononononononono. _

Her eyes welled with tears and a lump grew in her throat, choking her response.

"A brother?"

Mulder turned around to face her. She sat in the chair, shaking for a minute, her face blank. He wished he could take her in his arms and stop the trembling.

"This can't be true. This is an awful mistake. A nightmare. I can't tell my mother. I can't."

"Scully…the genetics test…"

"I CAN READ." With that, Scully burst into tears and put her hands to her face. The matter-of-fact, hard science had presented her with the worst reality; her life shattered in thirty seconds flat. She realized what she'd yelled at her partner and felt immediate remorse. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, this is just too much to process. I just don't know what is real anymore."

"Would you like to be alone?"

"No. I can't be here, though. Mulder."

"Come on, Scully. Let's get out of here. I can explain further, if you want, but I understand if you don't want -"

"No, I'd better learn the whole story," she interrupted. "But let's just go. Anywhere, far from here. I don't care anymore."

-o0o-

Three hours later, Mulder and Scully found themselves at a dive bar in Philadelphia, home of the worst-for-you food in the country. Scully, a notorious stress eater, decided to throw caution to the wind and order a Reuben. You couldn't get a good Reuben in DC. Not anywhere. Mulder got a pitcher of beer for them to share and a nice gyro.

Much of the initial car ride was silent between the two agents, so to break the tension Mulder popped in a Moby CD. Scully was grateful that Mulder understood her need to be with someone, yet not immediately talk it out. Mulder was perfect like that. He just let her have her space.

Skinner gave his blessing to allow Mulder and Scully to both take off for two weeks to get the matter sorted out. Skinner knew Mulder and Scully operated best as a single unit, and he usually ignored regular protocol for them as long as it got the job done. Whatever those two agents had, worked. Anyway, Mulder had built up an insane amount of vacation time, so what did he care? Might do him good.

-o0o-

Mulder decided to take Scully up to his parents' summer house in Rhode Island for a few days. He'd inherited three properties after both parents died, but decided to sell off the two unhappy homes and keep the summer house.

They arrived late at night. Scully plopped her stuff in the hallway and plopped on the sofa. The last time she'd been there, it had been torn apart and dark, but after Mulder's mother died he had done a little work on the place. It felt cozier. Mulder puttered around in the kitchen, making up a little plate of crackers and cheese for themselves.

"I suspected something might have happened, long ago," she finally said, when Mulder handed her a beer.

"You did?" He sat next to her on the sofa, putting his socked feet on the coffee table. He cracked a beer for himself and took a big swig. "I wouldn't expect that of my own father."

"Well…Dad was gone a lot. He'd be gone for months at a time. He and Mom fought a lot. In a weird way, it makes sense, but it's really hard to process just why."

"I know what you mean."

Scully turned to face him.

"You would. Mulder. You'd be the _only_ person who would know."

"I just accepted that my father wasn't who I thought he was."

Scully took another sip of beer and laid her head back, staring at a watermark on the ceiling.

"My dad always seemed so steadfast, but he was almost always a million miles away from us. Christ. That explains why he didn't want to leave the San Diego base."

The folder in question that Mulder had handed to Scully that morning was, in fact, confirmation that Captain William Scully, aka Major Garland Briggs, had another family in Twin Peaks, WA.


	2. Backlog

Scully downed three more beers before she finally had the courage to ask Mulder how he had come across the information. Mulder was just ahead of her, on his fifth. The crackers had long disappeared.

"My cousin Dennis works for the DEA in Washington state, and usually works with AAAAAGENT GORDON COLE."

Scully smiled. She and Mulder both had Gordon Cole as a teacher at the Academy, for code training. Everyone was fond of Agent Cole, even though he was deaf as could be.

Mulder continued.

"Dennis had been doing some investigative work with the police there a few years ago, after that agent went crazy. It was one of Cole's Blue Rose cases - you know that folder in the cabinet. There was some really intense stuff happening up there, something tied to a serial killer, international drug trafficking, dancing dwarves, that kind of thing. Major Briggs disappeared…I presume to San Diego, now?"

"Oh my god."

"The whole series of events were classified as an X-File, but I was still on Violent Crimes at the time shit went down in Twin Peaks. Anyway. One thing led to another, and next thing I know, a few weeks ago Dennis sends Skinner this letter uncovering the details of Major Briggs's big secret." He stopped, and chuckled a little. "Oh. I'm sorry. I keep doing this. He goes by Denise now."

Scully's mouth dropped open.

"MULDER. Denise Bryson is your COUSIN?" Scully burst out laughing. Suddenly she realized there was indeed a heavy family resemblance, and had a hilarious vision of Mulder in drag. It might have been the beer talking, but for the first time all day, Scully seemed relaxed.

"You know her!" Mulder smiled.

"Of course I do."

"Don't let it out. It's hard enough being _Spooky._ Dennis is a great guy. But…you know."

"Don't your kinfolk ever live normal lives?"

"Dennis is completely normal. Believe me, he's all red-blooded male, aside…"

"Aside from the women's clothes."

"Oh yeah, you wouldn't believe the number of women she's picked up. I'm surprised she hasn't gone after you."

"As a matter of fact, she has. She hit on me at the FBI ball when I was just out of the Academy. As I recall, she had on a very fetching gold lamé gown. How are you related?"

"She's my mother's sister's girl. Denise couldn't make it to the funeral. But yeah, they all lived out in Seattle."

Scully, suddenly thinking about her father again, started crying. She leaned into Mulder and he put his arm around her.

"Scully, I'm sorry you had to find out about this so harshly. I really am."

"I miss my dad. This has been an awful shock, but when I think about how things were, I understand what was going on a little better now. It's weird, I know. I feel like I should be angrier or crying more, or something, but on the trip up I was thinking things over."

"I know."

Scully shifted in her seat to face him.

"Thanks for letting me have that. Somehow it feels better being out of my element. If I were home, I'd be brooding over it, going through my photo albums and crying, just falling apart. But I need to stop seeing him as my father for a little while and think of him as a stranger. Which is what he really was."

"That's the hardest thing, Dana." Mulder kissed the top of her head.

Scully smiled and looked him square in the eye. For a minute her heart fluttered as she saw the concern in his face. She took his hand and squeezed it.

"It's going to be okay, Mulder."


	3. Troubled Sleep

After they kicked the better part of a case of beer, the agents decided to head to bed. Both were quite exhausted. Mulder had not gotten to renovate Samantha's and his old rooms yet, understandably, so he and Scully drunkenly decided to konk out in the master bedroom. At this point, both agents were so buzzed, exhausted, and numb from the day's strangeness that they didn't care. They changed into their pyjamas and flopped down on the old mattress, lying next to each other, staring at the ceiling.

"Nice digs, Mulder. Is that fragrance…eau de moth balls?"

"I'm guessing this business is straight out of the 1972 Sears Catalogue," mused Mulder, laughing at the loud green daisy print on the bedspread. "My mother was always into garden prints. Still, Scully, this is nicer than some of the places we've stayed. Remember the hellhole outside of Pittsburgh?"

"Ugh. That was awful." Scully chuckled. "I found a roach in my sink. It was concrete block. Like a gulag."

"It was $50 a night. Or $15 an hour, depending on what someone preferred."

Mulder was happy that Scully was at least laughing. It was much healthier than he'd expected. Her face soon sobered a bit.

"Mulder, did Agent Bryson mention whether Bobby Briggs knew of my family yet?"

"I'm not sure. Are you thinking of getting in contact with him?"

"I don't know. Maybe."

Scully turned and saw Mulder facing her. He put his hand to her cheek, a bit clumsily, but his touch felt like a branding iron. Despite Scully's strange calmness about the revelation of a secret brother, he knew this was deeply affecting her.

"Hey. Scully. You know…tomorrow we can do something fun to get your mind off this for a little while. A hike, or if that old antique store is still downtown, we can visit that. I'll treat you to dinner."

Scully smiled.

"That sounds great. You're so good to me, Mulder. But really, I'm fine. We'll talk about it tomorrow, okay? Goodnight." She kissed his cheek tenderly and rolled over so her back faced him. She didn't want him to see her staring off at the wall.

She heard Mulder's breathing eventually slow down, and once the faint snores started, she finally rolled over on her back to stare at the ceiling. Her head spun. Visions and questions ran through her mind like an awful home video. _What did he look like? Did he look like her or Missy or Charlie or Bill? Maybe he didn't look like anyone._ Scully knew that her own family line was definitely Scully, because she knew her entire extended family. _Poor Bobby…did he know anything? What stories did her father tell him growing up? What was her father's other wife like? _

But worst of all…how did her father get away with this all these years? He must have fabricated stories. The military made a perfect alibi…of course they'd send him any which way they could. Who would question him? Captain William Scully. Fraud.

Memories of her troubled adolescence trickled back.

_Smoking Mom's cigarettes. Dad found me smoking them and smacked me in the face for stealing._

_Getting in trouble for popping off at my Chem teacher._

_That time he found me half naked with Marcus in the rec room. That was humiliating._

Scully wondered if Bobby Briggs had it easy. If he'd been a good straightlaced kid with loving parents, or if their father had been equally absent in his life and he lashed out, too. She lay awake, thinking all over the place, when suddenly, in his sleep, Mulder cried out in one of his night terrors. This one was the worst…and strangest…he'd ever had.

_A room with a red curtain, black zigzag floor, and a statue of the Venus de Milo. A dancing dwarf came through the curtain. Agent Dale Cooper appeared, sitting in a chair with a beautiful blonde woman. They talked backwards. The curtain drew back and Scully entered the room. She sat on the chair next to Agent Cooper and whispered in his ear. She walked up to Mulder. Her eyes were pale, almost colorless. Suddenly she opened her mouth and screamed. Hideous, horrifying shrieks echoed over and over in the room. She disappeared. No one else was in the room but the Venus de Milo. _

He woke suddenly, breaking out of his private terror for a few moments and regaining his senses. He relaxed when he saw Scully right next to him.

"Come here, Mulder," she whispered.

She drew him into her arms and held him against her bosom…almost like his own mother did when he was very small, in that very house. Soon, with his head resting safely against Scully's small frame, both agents fell sound asleep - their sadness and woes slowly dissipating under the sweet veil of slumber.


	4. Decision

The next day, Mulder woke before Scully and decided to treat her to a nice breakfast. One thing Scully didn't know yet – Mulder was an excellent cook. He rarely made anything these days; it wasn't exactly easy for him to enjoy doing so in his tiny DC kitchen, and he was hardly ever home to even eat leftovers.

Mulder cracked open a few eggs and soon whipped up a delightful frittata. The smell of coffee woke Scully up a half-hour later. She wandered into the kitchen, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she saw the kitchen full of dirty dishes.

"Mulder? You cooked? …I'm afraid."

"You won't be, when you have a bite of this frittata."

"When on earth did you learn how to cook?"

"Home Ec class, Scully, like everyone else. Well, to be fair, Mrs. Doyle actually taught me how to make this recipe."

Mulder scooped out a slice of frittata and tasted it. It was delicious.

"Who's Mrs. Doyle?" asked Scully, looking around the kitchen.

"She was Dad's housekeeper for years," Mulder responded sadly.

_He hated divulging much about his wealthy childhood, but Mrs. Doyle had been his only real constant during those awful years after Samantha disappeared. He always thought of her fondly. While his parents fought nonstop and his family life crumbled, the elderly Mrs. Doyle had given Mulder the positive reinforcement he needed. He loved helping her as a teenager, and credited her for teaching him many life skills. She died of a stroke while Mulder was at Oxford._

Scully dressed and joined Mulder a few minutes later. She walked over to the breakfast nook. A real, honest-to-god breakfast nook. It was darling. Mulder had raided the linen closet and found his grandmother Kuiper's crocheted table runner folded neatly in a trunk. He had decided to really impress Scully with his upbringing, and created a pleasant table for her. He even picked lilacs off the bush outside and put them in a vase. Mrs. Doyle would have been pleased with his hospitality.

Scully, on the other hand, was shocked Mulder even had it in him. This was completely out of character for him. Mulder? The same man whose socks she once found on the coffee table?

Indeed, the frittata was outstanding. She even had a second helping, something Mulder never saw her do anymore.

"I have to say, Mulder, this is turning out to be fun," she said, shoving a heaping forkful into her mouth, eyeing a second piece. "I almost hate to leave."

"Who says you _ever_ have to leave?"

Scully got quiet a second, and gulped down some coffee. She chuckled a little.

"Thanks, Mulder. That means a lot. …I've decided to go out to Twin Peaks," she replied. "I need to do this. Now that I know the truth, I need to find closure."

"What if the closure isn't what you're looking for?" asked Mulder, gently. "What if…"

"I need to know the truth, Mulder. What I want to know is, would you come with me?"

"Of course, Scully. If you want me there. God knows you've been there for me throughout all of my family revelations."

"I do. I guess I should explain some things to you about my relationship with my father. You're probably thinking my reaction to this is strange."

"People handle things differently. I'm sure you have your reasons. Anyway, we'll have plenty of time during the trip."

Scully helped Mulder clean the kitchen. They had fun doing the dishes together. She even slyly gave Mulder a soapsuds beard. She really loved this summer house, and being there with him outside of work. Out here by the sea, in the middle of nowhere, it felt good. Calm. Mulder told her that she was welcome to stay there anytime she wished, as long as she picked out better decor. She considered taking him up on that offer.

"Okay, Scully. I'll call for our flight. You're sure you want to do this?"

"Absolutely."


	5. Travel

Two days later, the agents boarded a plane to Seattle. They managed to get two seats together on this flight, and spent the trip discussing the situation behind Scully and her dad.

_Her parents weren't exactly close for a number of years, and stayed married for the 'sake of the children.' Her dad was gone a lot: her mother explained that it was for military duty. For a long time Dana simply accepted this explanation, but when he was home, life was much more difficult. They endured a strict schedule under Captain Scully. No one ever slept past 6 AM, even on weekends. There was to be no reading of anything other than classic literature, which, to Dana, meant smuggling Nancy Drew books from the library. Ahab was not exactly a warm father. Her only good memories of him were when he'd read __**Moby Dick**__ to her. Every other encounter was tinged with striving toward his high standards and expectations. _

_Her older sister Melissa constantly fought with him, and as she got older things got worse. She ran away from home several times, took up smoking and drinking, took off with boyfriends. Her mother got really into religion, which put Dana off for years. _

_Dana began to realize that her own life felt constrained and unfair, and by age 16, she'd had quite enough of being bossed around by her family. She started hanging out with the punks at school, getting detention slips left and right. Her grades never fell, but her attitude did. She dyed her hair purple, started wearing punk clothes, bought a bunch of punk and goth albums and blared them to piss off her parents. After her father had been gone for three months, she mouthed off at him for being an asshole, and Captain Scully slapped her._

_Maggie Scully got tired of fighting with her daughters and actually found things much easier when Captain Scully was gone. The girls were both much closer to their mother, even though things weren't stellar._

_It wasn't until Dana's younger brother Charlie came out of the closet that shit really hit the fan. Her parents all but disowned him. _

"He didn't even come to Dad's funeral," she said. "Neither did Melissa. The only people who showed up were me, my mom, Bill and Tara, and my cousin Kenny and his family. My siblings hadn't made their peace with Dad," she said, somewhere over the Rockies.

"I understand why you felt uncomfortable," replied Mulder, pouring Scully a shot of Grey Goose from the airplane bottle. She took an appreciative sip.

"After Charlie got kicked out of the house, I lost it. I threw myself into my studies when I went to college, and worked up through med school. Charlie lived with me for a while when I was working on my master's, until he took off and found a boyfriend. He and Scott live in Pittsburgh now. He comes home occasionally, but Mom never lets him bring Scott and still thinks he's just going through a phase. She still can't accept him for who he is. Charlie's a great guy."

"What does he do?"

"Interior decorator. He and Scott designed my apartment, actually. If left to my own devices, my place would probably look like a convent."

After all these years, Scully hadn't revealed much to Mulder about her family life. Much of her backstory had come from Maggie Scully's lovely anecdotes, told to him while Dana was in the hospital following the abduction. Mulder was stunned by how troubled the seemingly perfect Scully family actually was. Now it made sense why Scully wasn't completely devastated by her father's secret family. When Dana abandoned medicine to join the FBI, her control freak dad flipped out and saw it as just another one of Dana's rebellions.

"The last time I saw him was just before New Year's. He and Mom came over for dinner. It was his first time at my place…up til then, only Mom ever visited. And the whole time he was there, he criticized everything from the toilet paper brand I used, to the way I cooked his steak, to how long I kept up my Christmas tree."

Mulder saw a blankness in Scully's eyes as she finished her story. No wonder she had terrible authority and father issues…her affairs with her professor and instructor made more sense now.

"Wow, Scully."

She sniffed and looked out the window at the mountain range below them. She smiled sadly.

"I know. It's some heavy shit. Like I said, I really had a lot of fun with you the past couple of days. I needed that mini vacation, and it was really great to just be by the water."

Dana had gotten rather worn out discussing this story with Mulder, and soon fell asleep on his shoulder. Mulder picked up a magazine and began to read. They'd land in about an hour and a half…Dana needed some sleep. He didn't even mind the drool puddle forming on his arm…much.


	6. The Owls Are Not What They Seem

_Scully found herself silently walking into a room surrounded by red curtains, with a black and white zigzag floor. A statue of the Venus de Milo stood behind a sofa. A handsome man in a suit sat in a chair next to the sofa. His chin jutted out like it was chiseled from marble. He clutched a cup of coffee. He smiled at her and nodded. A blonde woman in a black velvet dress sat next to him. She had a secretive smile. She spoke with a slurred voice, almost like a backwards recording playing back to her._

"_Dana. Sit down. Have the coffee."_

_The handsome man handed her a mug of coffee. She took a drink. It was good. She looked back into the cup. The coffee had become solid. She tilted it and it poured out like molasses onto the floor. The color turned red and as it hit the floor it shattered into pieces, like glass. She looked up at the handsome man, then looked down. The pieces spelled out "STARBUCK."_

_She looked to her side and noticed the beautiful blonde woman had disappeared. In her place sat her father, sitting placidly. He spoke to her in the same backwards, slurred speech._

"_There is much yet to be learned. The owls are not what they seem."_

_Scully watched him with a blank stare. She felt no emotion whatsoever, only a sense of calmness. Her father continued._

"_Seek a lady with a log. Many secrets will be revealed. I cannot yet enter the White Lodge for good. Write it in your diary."_

_He disappeared immediately. The room was empty for a few seconds. A dancing dwarf appeared in front of her, twirling to dreamy jazz music. He pulled her toward him and whispered in her ear._

"_You are a big sister."_

Scully awakened with a start to the sound of the landing ding on the airplane. She found her cheek pressed against Mulder's arm, and was mortified to see she'd drooled on him.

"Ugh. Sorry."

"Hey, sleeping beauty," deadpanned Mulder. "We're just about there. You must have had a hell of a dream."

"Same one I've had for years," she replied, slightly shaken. "Ever since high school."

The agents landed in Seattle soon afterward. Mulder called Agent Bryson when they arrived, and arranged to meet at a coffee shop for a late lunch.

Café Nervosa was fairly calm. Scully ordered a cappuccino; Mulder had a latte. Agent Denise Bryson sauntered in soon afterward, wearing a very well-tailored skirt suit and pumps. She waved at the barista, and then fake-ran over to Mulder, putting her hands on his shoulders.

"Foooox!"

Mulder chuckled when he saw his cousin.

"Denise. My goodness. You look devastating. Are those…new shoes?"

"Size eleven, Nine West. Got them for a STEAL. Aren't they gorgeous? A little snug, but they didn't have the half-size up. Dr. Scholl's gel pads to the rescue."

Denise wrapped Mulder into a rib-crunching bear hug, and a gigantic smile broke out when he saw Dana Scully sitting by the window. She walked over to Scully and gave her a huge kiss on her hand. A bright red lipstick imprint remained.

"Mmm mmm mmm. Special Agent Dana Scully. Delighted to see you again. You get more beautiful every time I see you."

"Hi, Denise," said Scully, a little weakly. Wow. She had to admit, Mulder and Denise could be twin brothers, or at least brother and sister, now that she saw the two of them together.

"Fox, I don't know how you can stand working with this gorgeous creature every day. I'd go crazy, seriously. Dana. You are SUCH a knockout. Mmph." Scully's face turned red and she tried to hide a smile. If she closed her eyes, Denise sounded just like Mulder, and it amused her. Mulder did his fake hitting on her all the time, but when it came out of Denise's mouth, it sounded truly lustful. She had to admit it kind of turned her on…in a weird way.

Denise turned to Mulder. "And Fox…you're looking well yourself, considering. How's everything going? I'm so sorry about Aunt Teena."

After a little while, Agent Bryson sobered up a bit and explained the situation of Bobby Briggs to Dana. It proved to be quite a story. Bobby had been tied to a local drug cartel operating out of Canada; he was a delinquent in high school; he'd had an affair with a married waitress, and his high school girlfriend had been murdered by her father.

"After they solved the Laura Palmer case and his affair with the waitress fell through, Bobby buckled down and ended up going to law school. He passed the bar and has been working as an attorney in town. Not a bad guy. He's gained a respectable reputation in family law. Frankly, everyone is pleased at his turnaround. Oh. By the way…that hot waitress is now married to Gordon, lucky bastard."

"So where does my father come in?"

"That's the strange thing. Bobby's father disappeared not long after the Palmer case was solved. Strange circumstances involving a serial killer named Windom Earle. Major Briggs had been involved in top secret military dealings, and eventually the connections to your own family came forth. I can say this: Bobby Briggs is very anxious to meet his big sis."

Scully gazed at her cup of coffee and then sighed. The dream on the plane still haunted her. She'd had it for so many years now, that she knew it by heart. As Denise recounted more information regarding Major Briggs, she realized that all along, it had been gently warning her of this very outcome.

She knew Mulder would understand the dream context and her feelings, but decided not to mention it just yet. She wanted to meet Bobby Briggs, too.


End file.
